Authority

As you get older, you start to see that the people you work with or the people you meet have a certain way of dealing with authority. I’ve noticed since I started working in a professional kitchen that titles really change the way that people look at each other.

From the get go, when I started, I noticed that the higher the title a person has, the more that they will give off a cold manner towards you. People seem to get all protective of their status and where they stand; it’s like they’re afraid that they will be replaced, that one day they will not matter anymore and of course that may happen, but by portraying a negative image, it becomes far more likely. That’s the one thing that the competitor will pick up on; weakness and a hunger for ‘status’ and ‘authority’.

No one get’s by, by portraying a mean and careless persona. Sure, sometimes you need to show that you have a higher authority and need to be taken seriously, but there are better ways you can do that, such as showing off your talent and love for the things that you are doing and are capable of.

I’ve noticed, as an outsider, that people in a kitchen section off the people that they talk to. People that have chef de partie titles or sous chefs choose to talk to some and not others. Why? Because they feel like the king and the boss, but in reality, they too are working for a higher person. There’s nothing more ugly and unappealing than giving off an air that you think you are better than someone else.

Not that I have noticed any cold shoulders pointing at me, but observing how others deal with the likes of kitchen porters or new chefs, there has got to be something better than this. It’s hard enough working in a hot and hectic kitchen serving 300+ customers a night, but when your own colleagues treat you like a slave or someone not worth caring about, the delivery and the execution of the work will be less perfect and when the love and the passion is sucked out of you, you start to question whether this job really is something you want.

So why do people choose who they talk to? I think it’s something that you learn from older people. I know that years and years ago, there was a division between workers and bosses and I think that has slowly crept among us again. You feel like you need to make people notice you and your talent , so it’s upsetting to see that people are still discriminating against their colleagues, because we are a team; without one or the other, the job would not work.

You’ve got to realise that you are working together and mistreatment only allows for negativity and negativity will just set the work place off into the wrong direction, as I am seeing now. Being angry or negative in the workplace also creates mistakes. So take a second to look and think about what you are saying to people, because without them, you may not even have a job in the first place.